


We All Live in a House on Fire

by DecemberKat



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Depression, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Guilt, No Incest, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Suicide Attempt, key word "of sorts", repudiation of incest as a matter of fact
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:27:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25926616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DecemberKat/pseuds/DecemberKat
Summary: "We all live in a house on fire. No fire department to call, no way out."--Tennessee Williams
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s), past allison/luther - Relationship
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	We All Live in a House on Fire

It was Klaus who found Luther that night, calling out for him to join them downstairs for a family dinner.

“Luther?” he hollered, ringing his little handbell. He looked in each of their rooms, ending with Luther’s closed door at the end of the hallway. Klaus paused and set the handbell down in the hall. The hair on the back of his neck stood up as he hesitantly tried the doorknob. Locked. Klaus sighed, ran a hand through his hair, and stole a few bobby pins off of Allison’s old desk. The sight that greeted him as he opened the door made Klaus’s blood run backward.

His brother lay unnaturally still in bed, arms at his sides with a note pinned to his shirt. Klaus felt his hands begin to shake as he read it.

There's no excuse for how I treated all of you. Just let me go. Go bury my ashes next to the tree out back. It's what I deserve. I'm so sorry.  
\--love, Luther

A suicide note. Klaus dropped the note and checked Luther’s pulse. Faint, but there. He got up and screamed out the door for his siblings. There was a thunder of footsteps as Klaus started CPR.

“He’s not breathing!” he said quickly as Diego appeared in the doorway. “Call an ambulance!” Diego’s face fell as he grabbed his phone out of his pocket and dialed. Allison and Vanya appeared soon after, looking out over the scene with a haunted look in their eyes. After a moment Luther took a breath on his own, coughing, then nearly bucked Klaus off by grabbing his nearby trashcan and letting the contents of his stomach out. Finally, he looked up at his family surrounding him, save for Diego, who had run back downstairs to wait for the EMTs. After a moment of shocked silence, Vanya spoke up,

“Why, Luther?” Luther just looked at her, more scared than she’d ever seen her oldest brother, more than he’d ever let any of his siblings see. The group turned as they heard Five and Diego leading a pair of EMTs up the stairs, parting as Diego lead them through. Luther tried to shrink from them, only for Klaus to put a skinny hand on his shoulder.

“Let them help you, Lu,” he said quietly. Turning to the EMTs, he explained, “He’s got a skin condition, so he’s a little self-conscious. We just wanna make sure he’s okay.”

The EMTs had been surprisingly professional, all things considered, but Luther objected to their insistence that he go to the hospital. It had been Klaus and Diego who’d talked them down with the promise that they’d make sure he saw a professional within the week. Finally, Diego helped him over to the bathroom, where Luther managed to wash the taste of vomit out of his mouth and join the rest of the family downstairs. Allison’s eyes were red, and Klaus was crying openly as Vanya just stared into space. Five was unusually quiet, arms and legs crossed as he ground his lower jaw. 

“We oughtta talk about this,” Diego said after a moment. “You tried to kill yourself, note and all.” Luther shrugged and shifted away from his siblings. 

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I just…” he paused and put his head in his hands. “I couldn’t take it anymore. Dad, Pogo, going back in time— I just…”

“You’re an asshole,” Luther looked up to see the translucent blue form of Ben standing in front of him, tears threatening to run down his ghostly face. “You really think killing yourself is gonna fix anything? Being dead sucks, and you still have a chance at a full life,” Ben’s voice cracked on the last few words, and he had to hurriedly wipe a beginning stream of tears. “You don’t deserve that, and I wish you’d stop taking your life for granted.” The tears flowed freely now, and Ben had to give up on wiping them away. 

“Ben’s right,” Vanya said. “You can’t keep punishing yourself for what happened.” For a moment Luther just stared at her. 

“It’s my fault the world almost ended! I was… I was a horrible brother to you, and everyone else!”

“We’ve all been pretty horrible to each other, honestly,” Diego said bluntly. “You’re not the only jackass in this family.” That made Luther smile for a moment, leading Allison to breathe a sigh of relief. She silently thought back to her and Luther’s conversation earlier that week, when everything had gone to shit. 

“Hey, Luther? Can I talk to you for a second?” Luther grinned, all too rare of an occurrence for Allison’s comfort. Unfortunately, the conversation they needed to have wasn’t too likely to help. 

“Yeah, sure, c’mon in!” He’d been working on another painting, thick acrylics forming the view of a sunset as seen from the little lawn chair he’d set next to his capsule on the moon. 

“Wow,” was all Allison had to say when she saw it. “You’re getting good.” Luther beamed. 

“Thanks! Uh…” his face fell as he noticed Allison’s serious expression. “What’s wrong?” At that, Allison had sat down on Luther’s bed, trying to resist the urge to avoid Luther’s brilliant blue eyes in favor of the lunar constellations he’d stuck above his bed.

“We need to talk about something,” she began. “I… know we had something as kids, and I’ll always cherish the time we spent together. But…” Allison braced herself for what she had to say next. “We can’t go on like that anymore. It’s not healthy for either of us.” Luther was silent for a long moment, and Allison felt her heart begin to race like it had near the fateful end of Vanya’s concert. 

“Okay…” Luther said softly. “I…” he trailed off. 

“Luther, I know it’s hard to hear, but…”

“Allison!” Luther put his head in his hands and tried to hide the tears welling up in his eyes. “I didn’t mean to yell, I’m sorry. I… I just don’t know what to do with myself, now that Dad’s dead and the world’s not gonna end anymore. The only thing I know for certain is that I love you.”

“And I love you too, Luther,” Allison said immediately. “But we all have to move on with our lives. I’ll always be here for you, no matter what. But you need to find someone you’re not related to.” At that Luther laughed humorlessly. 

“Who’d want a guy like me?” he said wryly. Allison raised an eyebrow. 

“Like what? Kind? Sensitive? Luther, you’re an amazing guy! Anyone would have to be a fool not to see that!” Luther was silent for a long moment. Finally he got up.

“Okay,” he said quietly. “I… I’ll need some time to think about it. But who knows. I might get lucky and meet one of those ‘furties’ Klaus is always going on about.” Allison laughed. 

“It’s ‘furries.’ And take all the time you need, Luther. You deserve to be happy.”

Allison was shaken out of her thoughts by Diego putting his hand on her shoulder. She looked over at him with a sad smile and put her hand over his. The rest of the family had slowly trickled out of the room towards their planned dinner, having nothing in particular else to do at that point.

“He’ll be okay,” Diego promised her. “We all’ll be okay.”


End file.
